In winter, there is an ‘Ice Fall Tour’ where the frozen waterfalls are lit up, and various ‘water activities’ are available on Lake Towada.
Lake Towada broke down, and the Oirase Gorge was created. There are 14 waterfalls in the mountain stream that continues for 14km, and about 300 kinds of moss inhabit the area.
Introducing Bara-yaki, a home-cooked dish enjoyed around the Towada area. Bara-yaki is made by cooking bara beef (meat around ribs) and a plenty of onion on a hot iron pan seasoned with soy-based sweet and spicy sauce. The concept comes from Bulgogi, a Korean dish with grilled beef. These days, it’s not only a popular home-cooked dish, it’s now served at local restaurants in the area.
Aomori Prefecture is known as the biggest producer of garlic in Japan, producing over 70% of the annual yields in 2020. Towada city in Aomori is one of the leading areas in growing garlic. Their garlic is rather big in size with pure white, packed with strong umami.
Animal husbandry is flourishing in the soil of Towada volcano. There is plenty of meat that is essential for bara-yaki, such as ‘Towada Shorthorn Beef’ which uses recycling-based agriculture, and is low in fat and has a lot of umami. There is also the ‘Oirase Garlic Pork’, which feeds on garlic, that has the largest in production in Japan.
Towada volcano, which started its activity about 200,000 years ago, erupted repeatedly and became a caldera, and because of its high altitude, there were no inflowing rivers and a highly transparent Lake Towada was created.
The Oirase Stream is home to about 300 different kinds of moss. You can enjoy a ‘moss walk’ with a loupe in hand.
